From the public to the private sector, many are using bio-based plastics as a way to help meet sustainability and zero-waste goals. Bioplastics are made from renewable resources such as corn or sugarcane; but is feedstock renewability enough to make bioplastics green? Corn agriculture is an energetically and chemically intensive process, and there are important environmental tradeoffs that occur when transitioning from petro-derived to agriculturally derived plastics. Bioplastics are supposed to be compostable, which could be another factor that makes them green. However, in practice, biopolymers are not degrading in industrial compost facilities. With an increasing use of anaerobic digestion to handle food waste, some municipalities no longer accept bioplastics in their organic waste stream. The lack of bioplastic degradation has even led many cities to consider bans or special labeling for compostable bioplastics. This talk explores the sustainability of bio-based plastics. Using life cycle assessment and green chemistry, sustainable metrics are evaluated for polymer design. Industrial symbiosis solutions will be discussed that improve polymer compostability using waste products from the mining industry. Finally, design for the environment and systems analysis are employed to redesign our Nation’s waste management systems with the goal of minimizing the unintended consequences of bio-based plastics.